Rushcliffe School

Rushcliffe pupils have taken part in the inaugural BritWriters Award writing competition, which is supported by the UK's top writers and journalists as well as our Prime Minister and other senior figures. The competition has been enormously successful, becoming the UKs largest ever writing competition, and we at Rushcliffe certainly plan to make our participation an annual event.

To promote the competition, and to support our young writers, we also held our own writing competition with many magnificent examples of short stories, non-fiction reports and collections of poetry. The standard was exceptionally high, and a real showcase of the creative talents of Rushcliffe writers.

There were, of course, a few winners, whose work was of the highest quality. Winners of the Gold Awards for Prose Writing were Sarah Martin of 11L for her beautiful short story ‘Moonlight Sonata' and Lilah Francis of 10T for the exceptionally clever ‘The potential Prodigy'. Winning the Gold Award for Poetry was Toyaj Singh of 7L for some wonderfully crafted poems.

However, one Rushcliffe Writer wrote a terrifying short story of such control and sophistication that it deserves special recognition for her exceptional talents. I'm delighted to announce that our Rushcliffe Writer of the Year is Priya Sharma of 10W.

Well done to Priya, Sarah, Lilah and Toyaj, and to all the other entrants and prize-winners. Keep writing, and maybe next year you will be the Rushcliffe Writer of the Year. 

Mr Taylor

Miller's play has always the power to hold an audience but I suspect never quite as tightly as we managed by placing the audience around the action rather than looking up at it.
When I first came to the school I saw the possibilities of performing In-the-round in 'A' Hall and ‘The Crucible' proved to be an ideal choice.
However directorial ambitions can only be achieved with the help of other people and I was blessed with a wonderful company of students both on and off the stage.

Year 8
*Eve Gordon*
Year 9
*Beth Clark*Caitlin Ferguson*Katie Howie*
*Bethany Russell*Jacob Stacey*
Year 10
*Chris Ford*Ross Levy*Richard Jones*Chloe McShane*
Year 11
*Atticus Orsborn*Duncan Gallagher*Jack Parker*
*Jonathan Pike*Umar Yasin*
Year 12
*Georgia Alvey*Reuben Balkitis*
*Stuart Levy*Rosie O'Reilly*Nick Whiting*
Year 13
*Timor Goswami*Ellen Malone*Kat Mitchell*
*Matt Neilson*Olivia Swift*

There are very few occasions when a wide mix of ages and abilities can work together in school; a production like this is one of the only times it can take place and the social and educational benefits are huge.
One parent wrote to say that several of the performances would have graced larger stages and she was right.
On behalf of the students involved can I thank all those of you who came and, to quote an audience member on Thursday, watched one of the best school productions they had ever seen.

Max Bromley

On the 1st of the February year 10 pupils carried out a number of activities which developed their science and mathematical skills.

The Day proved a great success and below is an outline of the events.

'Tick Tock' the iodine clock.  Iodine is produced when a solution of potassium iodide reacts with hydrogen peroxide solution.  If starch solution is present in the mixture, it will instantly turn blue-black.  If the composition of the reaction mixture is varied, the time it takes for the blue-balck colour to form will change.  For this reason, this reaction is known as a 'clock reaction'.

Delivering Slime.  By adding PVA glue to a substace called Borax we can produce slime.  The properties of slime depend upon how dilute the PVA glue is and how much borax you add to the reacting mixture.

Pupils were set the challenge of making slime that would flow a fixed distance in 30 seconds.

Generating electricity.  Pupils analysed data for a large college in the centre of Nottingham which currently generates its electricity using the national grid.

Their challenge was to evaluate methods for reducing emissions at the College and economics of using such methods.